Tuesday, May 16, 2017

James Comey himself is under Justice Dept. IG investigation. Launched during Obama admin., matters include his handling of Hillary emails and whether FBI leaked nonpublic information-Washington Post, 1/12/17

The investigation will be
wide-ranging, encompassing Comey’s various letters and public statements
on the matter and whether FBI or other Justice Department employees
leaked nonpublic information, according to Inspector General Michael E.
Horowitz.

Comey
has also been criticized for months by former Justice Department
officials for violating the department’s policy of avoiding any action
that could affect a candidate close to an election. President-elect
Donald Trump has notably declined to commit to keeping the FBI director.

Lawmakers and others had called
previously for the inspector general to investigate the FBI’s actions
regarding the Clinton probe ahead of the election, alleging that Comey
violated long-standing policies with his communications about the case
and that information seemed to have leaked inappropriately — perhaps to
former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Trump supporter.

Horowitz
said Thursday that he will explore the circumstances surrounding the
actions of Comey and others, though he will not relitigate whether
anyone should have faced charges.

“The review will not substitute
the OIG’s judgment for the judgments made by the FBI or the Department
regarding the substantive merits of investigative or prosecutive
decisions,” Horowitz said in his statement, using an abbreviation for
the Office of the Inspector General.

Comey said in a statement:
“I am grateful to the Department of Justice’s IG for taking on this
review. He is professional and independent and the FBI will cooperate
fully with him and his office. I hope very much he is able to share his
conclusions and observations with the public because everyone will
benefit from thoughtful evaluation and transparency regarding this
matter.”The FBI’s probe into whether Clinton mishandled
classified information by using a private email server when she was
secretary of state has long been ¬controversial and politically charged.

Perhaps most notably, Comey on Oct. 28--after previously announcing publicly that he was recommending no charges in the case — sent a letter
to congressional leaders telling them that agents had resumed the
Clinton probe after finding potentially relevant information in an
unrelated case. That investigation involved disgraced former congressman
Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

The
day before, senior Justice Department leaders had warned Comey not to
send the letter, because it violated two long-standing department
policies — discussing an ongoing investigation and taking any overt
action affecting a candidate so close to an election. Comey has
notably declined to talk about any possible investigations of Trump or
his campaign, as recently as this week rebuffing requests from
legislators to confirm that agents were looking into any such matters."...

(continuing): "Horowitz wrote that he will explore “allegations
that Department or FBI policies or procedures were not followed” in
connection with both letters. When he is finished, his office will
probably issue a lengthy report detailing what it has found, as it has
done in other high-profile matters, though it is also possible he could
recommend criminal charges for anyone found to have broken the law. The
probe could take a significant amount of time.

Horowitz wrote
that his inquiry will extend back to at least July — when Comey
announced he was recommending the Clinton case be closed without
charges.

He wrote that he will explore “allegations that
Department and FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public
information”-potentially a reference to Giuliani, who seemed to claim
at one point he had insider FBI knowledge. Horowitz also said he would
explore whether FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should have been
recused from the case. McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, ran for a Virginia
Senate seat and took money from the political action committee of
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a fierce Clinton ally.

The FBI
asserted at the time that Andrew McCabe had checked in with ethics
officials and followed agency protocols. And, when his wife was first
recruited to run, he was not yet deputy director. He was elevated to
that post in February 2016, after his wife was out of politics.

Through
an FBI spokesman, McCabe declined to comment. Giuliani said in an
interview Thursday night that he had talked only to former FBI
officials, who relayed some agents’ general displeasure with Comey’s
recommendation that Clinton not be charged. He said he did not talk to
current agents with knowledge of any probes, and he would cooperate with
the inspector general investigation.

Horowitz wrote that he
would delve more deeply into the FBI publishing, just days before the
election, 129 pages of internal documents from a years-old probe into
former president Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Democratic donor Marc
Rich. And he said he would also probe whether Peter Kadzik, the Justice
Department’s assistant attorney general for legislative affairs,
“improperly disclosed non-public information to the Clinton campaign
and/or should have been recused from participating in certain matters.”
Kadzik used to be the lawyer for Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta,
and WikiLeaks released hacked emails showing communications between the
two men about the State Department’s review of Clinton emails for
Freedom of Information Act purposes.

In an interview, Kadzik, who
said he was speaking in his personal capacity, called the inspector
general’s investigation “disheartening.” He noted that the information
he gave Podesta about a hearing and a court document already was public
and that it came before the FBI opened its criminal investigation.

Of
whether he should have recused himself from any involvement in that
criminal probe, Kadzik said, “It’s not as if I had any decision-making
authority or role in the criminal investigation.” Kadzik declined to say whether he would cooperate with the inspector general’s probe.

“My answer is, I wish the inspector general would have talked to me first,” he said.

Notably
absent from the list of matters being considered is Attorney General
Loretta E. Lynch’s controversial meeting in June with former president
Clinton aboard her plane on the tarmac of the Phoenix airport. The
half-hour conversation, which Lynch has said she regrets, created the
appearance to some that the attorney general was politically
compromised. Some officials say it left a leadership vacuum and probably
prompted Comey to give his controversial July news conference, at which
he announced he was recommending no charges for Clinton but criticized
her and her aides as “extremely careless.”

The
tarmac meeting could be encompassed in the investigation of possible
leaks of information, and Horowitz wrote that his investigators would
consider “other issues that may arise during the course of the review.”

"FBI agents argued-based at least in part on news accounts- earlier
this year that the Clinton Foundation should be investigated for
potentially giving donors special political access and favors. The
Justice Department’s public integrity unit said they did not have enough
evidence to move forward.

The Clinton Foundation said it was
never contacted by the FBI, suggesting the bureau’s efforts were in a
preliminary stage as prosecutors weighed in. But agents in New York have
sought to keep their inquiries alive, feuding with the Justice
Department about the lengths to which they can go, according to people
familiar with the matter."..............................

"‘He’s got to get control of the ship again’, said Robert Anderson, a
former senior official in the FBI who considers Comey a friend. “There’s
a lot of tension in the organization, and there’s a lot of tension in
Congress and the Senate right now, and all that counts toward how much
people trust the FBI.”"...